"And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering...." (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)

Monday, March 23, 2009

RIP: TERRI VANDENBOSCH (EX-FRANNIE; ATWT)

Terri VandenBosch Hertz, a soap opera actress in the 1980s as well as a scuba diving instructor, dolphin trainer and emergency medical technician, died at age 46 on March 9.

Her death, at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, resulted from complications of the chronic kidney disease that had partially disabled the Woodbury resident since her diagnosis five years ago, her husband, Michael Hertz, said.

She also leaves a daughter, Skylar, 7, and two stepchildren, Matthew, 20, and Monica, 18.

"She was a rebel who did something outside the box," said Hertz, 57, of the stubborn, opinionated and adventurous woman he first met in 1983 when he became her business agent.

Terri VandenBosch was adopted shortly after her birth on Dec. 9, 1962, in Florida, and grew up, from age 12, in Saratoga Springs.

She attended the University at Albany but left before graduation for New York City, where she quickly landed the role of Frannie Hughes (later played by Julianne Moore) on "As The World Turns."

Terri, who joined the cast of ATWT on June 13, 1983, was the sixth actress to play Bob and Jennifer's daughter, but the first one with an actual character to play. (All the previous Frannies had been babies, toddlers, and one pre-teen whose entire storyline consisted of accidentally putting on a drug dealer's hat.)

The typically SORASed just in time for summer teen first met Lisa's stepson, Kirk (Christian LeBlanc), when he rear-ended her car. It was hate at first sight.

Uh-ha.

Much to Frannie's horror, she learned that not only was Kirk in her English class, but that she would have to tutor him.

Anyone who can't guess what happened next has to go back to Remedial Soaps 101.

Soon, Frannie had made a new friend, Marcy (Marisa Tomei), a shy, neglected young woman who first fell for Frannie's dad, Bob, then, when Bob gently rebuffed her (and fought off the sexual harassment suit John manipulated Marcy into filling), Marcy fell for Frannie's boyfriend, Kirk.

Meanwhile, Kirk's best-friend, Jay (Breck Jaimson), son of the family house-keeper, fell for Frannie. On Spring Break in Daytona Beach in 1984, Frannie admitted to Jay that she cared for him, too. They shared their first kiss, but decided to stay apart because of Kirk.

They couldn't stay apart.

Kirk eventually discovered them together and ran off into the woods, where a freak accident left him blind. He recovered with Marcy by his side.

Soon after, Kirk's father, Whit, was murdered, and the killer turned out to be Jay's mother, Dorothy, who revealed on the stand that she was Kirk's mother, too!

As Kirk fell for Marcy, Frannie's feelings for Jay cooled and she left Oakdale for Yale.